A man says goodbye to Earth as he prepares to fly to the Moon and stay there forever.

Created for the 2025 Public Domain Day Remix Contest in honor of all the filmmakers, writers, composers, and other artists who ‘left the world behind,’ leaving us their art to absorb and remix into something new.

All on-screen text comes from public domain books, periodicals, and sheet music. The music is Henry Burr’s 1915 recording of Irving Berlin's “When I Leave the World Behind.” All these materials are linked below.

I used the following public domain materials from 1929:

• Woman in the Moon (1929) dir. Fritz Lang https://archive.org/details/woman-in-the-moon-1929-by-fritz-lang

• Springtime (1929) dir. Ub Iwerks https://archive.org/details/springtime_1929 

• The Broadway Melody (1929) dir. Harry Beaumont https://archive.org/details/the-broadway-melody-1929-by-harry-beaumont 

• Bambi (1929 ed.) by Felix Salten, trans. Whittaker Chambers https://archive.org/details/bambi00salt 

• Investment Banking (1929) by H. Parker Willis and J. I. Bogen https://archive.org/details/investmentbankin0000henr_d4p7 

• Laughing Boy (1929) by Oliver La Farge https://archive.org/details/laughingboylafa00lafa

• The Forbidden Zone (1929) by Mary Borden https://archive.org/details/forbiddenzone00bord 

• American Artisan 1929-12-28: Vol 98 Iss 26 https://archive.org/details/sim_american-artisan-the-warm-heating-and-sheet-metal_1929-12-28_98_26 

• Arts & Decoration August-December 1929: Vol 31-32 https://archive.org/details/artsdecoration3132newy 

• Automotive Industries 1929-12-28: Vol 61 Iss 26 https://archive.org/details/sim_automotive-industries_1929-12-28_61_26 

• Grain & Feed Journals 1929-12-25: Vol 63 Iss 12 https://archive.org/details/grain-feed-journals_1929-12-25_63_12

• Holstein-Friesian World 1929-12-28: Vol 26 Iss 44 https://archive.org/details/sim_holstein-world_1929-12-28_26_44 

• Life 1929-03-15: Vol 93 Iss 2419 https://archive.org/details/sim_life_1929-03-15_93_2419 

• Midweek Pictorial 1929-12-28: Vol 30 Iss 19 https://archive.org/details/sim_midweek-pictorial_1929-12-28_30_19 

• Nature 1929-12-28: Vol 124 Iss 3139 https://archive.org/details/sim_nature-uk_1929-12-28_124_3139

• The Economist 1929-12-28: Vol 109 Supplement https://archive.org/details/sim_economist_1929-12-28_109_supplement

I also used these pre-1929 public domain materials:

• Dewenter Home Movies: Local Travel 5 (1927) dir. Henry & Elizabeth Dewenter https://archive.org/details/CHMHUB29LocalTravel5 

• Song Birds as Neighbors (ca. 1920s) dir. William L. and Irene Finley https://archive.org/details/0943_Song_Birds_as_Neighbors_00_19_05_03 

• The Phantom Carriage (1921) dir. Victor Sjöström https://archive.org/details/the-phantom-carriage-1921-by-victor-sjostrom 

• Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years (1926) by Carl Sandburg https://archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnpr02sand 

• Encyclopaedia Britannica 13th Edition Vol. 1 (1926) https://archive.org/details/encyclopaedia-britannica-encyclopaedia-britannica.-3-encyclopaedia-britannica-inc.-1926

• Howards End (1921) by E. M. Forster https://archive.org/details/howardsend00fors

• King Midas: A Romance (1901) by Upton Sinclair https://archive.org/details/kingmidasromance0000sinc

• Mrs. Dalloway (1925) by Virginia Woolf https://archive.org/details/mrsdalloway00wool

• Orlando: A Biography (1928) by Virginia Woolf https://archive.org/details/orlandobiography0000virg

• Our Native Birds of Song and Beauty (1893) by Henry Nehrling https://archive.org/details/cu31924084820277

• The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.184960

• The Game of Life and How to Play it (1925) by Florence Scovel Shinn https://archive.org/details/gameoflifehowtop00shin

• The Wind in the Willows (1913 illustrated edition) by Kenneth Grahame https://archive.org/details/windinwillows00grah

• When I Leave the World Behind (1915 sheet music) by Irving Berlin https://archive.org/details/sm_whenileavetheworldbehind 

• When I Leave The World Behind (1915 recording) by Henry Burr https://archive.org/details/when-i-leave-the-world-behind 

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